The urgent need for an alternative approach to innovation: Outlining some basic principles for more sustainable innovation[L'urgence d'une conception alternative de l'innovation : Esquisse de quelques principes fondateurs pour une innovation plus soutenable]

Innovation is paradoxical. Its dominant conception is now showing its fragility in the face of the challenges of sustainability, while it has become an inescapable dogma in the economic and public spheres. This article highlights the limitations of a vision of innovation inherited from Schumpeter and limited to the economic dimension of "creative destruction". This vision, while illuminating the mechanisms of competition, is now proving incomplete in the face of today's environmental and social challenges. In contrast to naive "technological solutionism", this essay questions the theoretical foundations of innovation. In particular, it points to the pernicious effects of incremental innovation, which, under the guise of technological progress, perpetuates unsustainable models and fuels the "acceleration of the production of the useless. In light of these observations, the authors outline an alternative conception of innovation. From now on, innovation must inseparably integrate a system made up of four interdependent dimensions, allowing us to conceive of innovation in a sustainable way.